Yu-ichi Inoue is one of the most important artists from post-war time.

"Sho (Calligraphy) is said to be the expression of lines but the complex and delicate secrets of Sho lie in the fact that lines realize themselves in the action of writing characters. It is no that lines are integrated into characters, but that lines are realized of themselves in the action of writing characters." (Yu-ichi Inoue)

An iconic figure of post-war Japanese modern calligraphy, Yuichi Inoue began gaining international recognition early on since the 1950s, with his work showcased in the Sao Paulo Biennial alongside Western abstract artists such as Jackson Pollock, Hans Hartung, and Pierre Soulages. Other important exhibitions that he contributed documenta in Kassel, demonstrating the wide recognition from the international art community to him as an artist and also to the genre of Japanese modern calligraphy.

He co-founded the avant-garde society for calligraphy, Bokujin Kai, and seeing the growing prominence of abstract expressionism in the West, he began advocating liberation from calligraphy's conservative doctrines for the pursuit of free, unrestricted calligraphic expression. After experimenting with non-textual abstract art and using enamel paint rather than the ink of calligraphy tradition, Inoue then realized that once calligraphy strays from its textual base, it seizes to hold any value for existing. This realization led him back to working with brush and ink and the development of his own unique art rhetoric. The larges sheets of paper that Inoue worked with by physically immersing himself in are documentations of the artist's physical movements, energies, and also the spiritual states that he was in during those moments.